Reform

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences

Kinds of Reform

  • education reform
  • law reform
  • market reform
  • pension reform
  • policy reform
  • welfare reform

  • Terms modified by Reform

  • reform act
  • reform project

  • Selected Abstracts


    THE FACE OF MONEY: Currency, Crisis, and Remediation in Post-Suharto Indonesia

    CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
    KAREN STRASSLER
    ABSTRACT In the period of transition following Suharto's resignation as president of Indonesia in 1998, the image of the 50,000Rp bill bearing his face became a visual shorthand for the corruption and abuse of power that had characterized his regime. Accessible, decentralized consumer technologies enabled people to alter money's appearance, transforming it from a fetish of the state into a malleable surface available for popular reinscription. As the medium of money was "remediated",absorbed into other media, refashioned, and circulated along new pathways,it became a means by which people engaged questions of state power, national integrity, political authenticity, and economic relations opened up by the crisis of Reformasi (Reform). The essay argues that remediations of public forms play a crucial role in times of political transition by enabling people to materialize alternative visions of political authority and authenticity. Moreover, remediated forms have become a characteristic modality of political communication in the post-Suharto period under conditions of democratization and an increasingly diversified media ecology. [source]


    How NGOs React: Globalization and Education Reform in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Mongolia (Iveta Silova & Gita Steiner-Khamsi, eds., 2008)

    CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 4 2008
    SARFAROZ NIYOZOV
    First page of article [source]


    Sound, Presence, and Power: "Student Voice" in Educational Research and Reform

    CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 4 2006
    ALISON COOK-SATHER
    ABSTRACT Every way of thinking is both premised on and generative of a way of naming that reflects particular underlying convictions. Over the last 15 years, a way of thinking has reemerged that strives to reposition students in educational research and reform. Best documented in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States, this way of thinking is premised on the following convictions: that young people have unique perspectives on learning, teaching, and schooling; that their insights warrant not only the attention but also the responses of adults; and that they should be afforded opportunities to actively shape their education. Although these convictions mean different things to different people and take different forms in practice, a single term has emerged to capture a range of activities that strive to reposition students in educational research and reform: "student voice." In this discussion the author explores the emergence of the term "student voice," identifies underlying premises signaled by two particular words associated with the term, "rights" and "respect," and explores the many meanings of a word that surfaces repeatedly across discussions of student voice efforts but refers to a wide range of practices: "listening." The author offers this discussion not as an exhaustive or definitive analysis but rather with the goal of looking across discussions of work that advocates, enacts, and critically analyzes the term "student voice." [source]


    The Relationships Between and Among Teachers' Narrative Knowledge, Communities of Knowing, and School Reform: A Case of "The Monkey's Paw"

    CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 3 2001
    Cheryl J. Craig
    Centering on the monkey's paw metaphor, this narrative inquiry links teachers' pedagogical practices with their professional-development experiences associated with a national reform movement that, in this situation, acted in a top-down manner. The longitudinal study illuminates the short- and long-term influence that the state-directed national reform initiative had on the story of a diverse, U.S. middle school and on the stories its teachers subsequently lived and told. The work particularly focuses on the relationships between and among teachers' knowledge developments, their knowledge communities, and their attitudes toward school reform. [source]


    Generalised and Particularistic Thinking in Policy Analysis and Practice: The Case of Governance Reform in South Africa

    DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 3 2009
    Olle Frödin
    This article is concerned with the relationship between generalised and particularistic knowledge in the context of policy-making and policy analysis. It argues that it is problematic to assume that a reform model will generate similar outcomes across a wide variety of contexts. It presents a conceptual framework, including the concepts of transaction domain and domain consensus, that enables context-sensitive analyses. The argument is exemplified by South Africa's introduction in the 1990s of an Integrated Development Planning model, based on British reform experience and various international public-management models. With a case study of such planning in Lukhanji Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province, it illustrates how the conceptual framework may be used in policy research and analysis. [source]


    World Income Distribution and Tax Reform: What Tax Systems Do Low-Income Countries Need?

    DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 3 2003
    J. Ram Pillarisetti
    This article develops a new method for assessing relative direct tax burdens across all countries, treating the world as a single economic entity and assuming identical preferences across countries. Empirical results show that the new direct tax burden indices are significantly high in low-income countries in comparison with middle- and high-income countries. This article argues in favour of narrowing the base of income and capital gains tax in low-income countries and a long-term convergence of the tax burden levels across countries. Future research into tax reforms in low-income countries should focus simultaneously on economic growth, quality of life and the natural environment. [source]


    An Essay on the Role of Language in Collegiate Foreign Language Programmatic Reform,

    DIE UNTERRICHTSPRAXIS/TEACHING GERMAN, Issue 2 2009
    Hiram Maxim
    This position paper argues that collegiate foreign language (FL) education has lost sight of the central role that language plays in the profession. Regardless of one's sub-field within foreign language education (i.e., linguistic, literary, or cultural studies), the profession shares the common focus of exploring how to make and interpret meaning in and through language. The paper therefore recommends that an acknowledgement of and re-commitment to this foundational principle provides common ground to effect the types of change within departments that have long been called: the integration of upper- and lower-level instruction; the reform of graduate student teacher education to foster curricular thinking; the explicit and systematic attention to the development of advanced language abilities; and the establishment of a collaborative departmental culture centered around publicly shared beliefs and concerns. [source]


    Estimating the Impact of a Policy Reform on Benefit Take-up: The 2001 extension to the Minimum Income Guarantee for UK Pensioners

    ECONOMICA, Issue 306 2010
    FRANCESCA ZANTOMIO
    In 2001 the Minimum Income Guarantee for UK pensioners was reformed, changing the structure and level of benefits. We evaluate the behavioural response to this reform, using nonparametric analysis comparing a sample of pensioners interviewed before and another interviewed after the reform, matching their simulated pre- and post-reform entitlements and other characteristics. We compare the results with conventional parametric methods and also ex ante matching, and we consider the effect of measurement error in simulated entitlements. The response of take-up to the reform is found to be significant and positive, with evidence of larger impacts from the nonparametric analysis. [source]


    From Licence Raj to Market Forces: The Determinants of Industrial Structure in India after Reform

    ECONOMICA, Issue 298 2008
    KWOK TONG SOO
    This paper explores the relationship between factor endowments, technology and industrial structure, using a panel data-set of Indian industries across states, industries and time. Factor endowments and technology are found to be significantly related to industry shares, and this is robust to controlling for the slow adjustment of industrial structure. I also consider the impact of the liberalization of the Indian economy beginning in 1985 and 1991 on the relationship between these variables. While industrial structure is always positively related to technological advantage, factor endowments play an increasingly significant role after liberalization. [source]


    Counterpoint:CAP Reform in the Dairy Sector: Remove Export Subsidies and Retain Milk Quota-Counterpoints and Reply

    EUROCHOICES, Issue 3 2004
    David Harvey
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]


    CAP Reform in the Dairy Sector: Remove Export Subsidies and Retain Milk Quota

    EUROCHOICES, Issue 2 2004
    Zohra Bouamra-Mechemache
    Summary CAP Reform in the Dairy Sector: Remove Export Subsidies and Retain Milk Quota The reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy of June 2003 introduced major policy changes, In the dairy sector the aim is to decrease price distortions between the EU and world dairy markets through successive reductions in milk intervention prices. However, the milk quota system is still in place and successive increases in milk quotas are planned. The question is whether these dairy reforms are going in the right direction given the three main characteristics of the EU dairy sector. First the price inelasticity of both milk supply (due to quota) and domestic demand means that price distortion mainly affects the distribution of economic surplus between consumers and producers but does not generate significant net losses in economic welfare. Second, the ,large country' position of the EU on the world market means that the EU should remove all export subsidies, which will reduce EU exports and increase world prices. Third, the projected increase in EU aggregate demand for milk favours a reduction in all subsidies. The CAP is going in the right direction in the dairy sector. But to reduce price distortions all subsidies should be removed as soon as possible and the milk production quota should be retained. La réforme de la PAC laitiére: supprimer les subventions aux exportations et conserver les quotas La réforme de la PAC en juin 2003 est un changement majeur. En ce qui concerne le secteur laitier, l'idée consiste à diminuer les distorsions entre les prix européens et ceux du marché mondial par une série de réductions progressives du prix d'intervention. En même temps, le système des quotas reste en place et des accroissements progressifs sont envisageés pour les droits à produire. La question. est alors de savoir si une telle politique est bien orientée, compte tenu des trois caractéristiques principales du secteur laitier européen. En premier lieu, la faible élasticité-prix aussi bien de l'offre (à cause des quotas) que de la demande, implique que les distorsions, si elies affectent la répartition des bénéfices entre producteurs et consommateurs, ne génèrent pas de très grandes pertes sociales au niveau du bien-être global. Ensuite, l'importance de l'Union européenne sur les marchés mondiaux implique que l'UE doive réduire ses subventions à l'exportation, ce qui diminuera le volume des exportations et en fera remonter le prix, Enfin, l'accroissement prévisible de la demande globale européenne en produits laitiers devrait conduire G une réduction des subventions de toute sorte. La PAC est done sur la bonne voie en matière laitière. Mais pour réduire les distorsions, il faut le plus vite possible supprimer les subventions et conserver les quotas laitiers. Reform der GAP im Milchsektor: Abschaffung der Exportsubventionen und Beibehaltung der Milchquoten Die Reform der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik vom Juni 2003 führt zu erheblichen Politikänderungen. Im Milchsektor ist das Ziel, die Preisverzerrungen zwischen der EU und den Weltmärkten für Milchprodukte durch eine sukzessive Reduzierung der Milchinterventionspreise zu verringern. Das Milchquotensystem bleibt jedoch weiter bestehen und sukzessive Erhöhungen der Milchquoten sind geplant. Es ergibt sich die Frage, ob die Reform bei den vorhandenen drei Charakteristika im EU Milchsektor in die richtige Richtung geht. Erstens bedeuten das gegebene preisunelastische Angebot von Milch (wegen der Quotierung) und die Nachfrage im Inland, dass die Preisverzerrung sich vomehmlich auf die Verteilung der ökonomischen Rente zwischen Konsumenten und Produzenten auswirkt, nicht aber zu bedeutenden Wohlfahrtsverlusten führt. Zweitens fuhrt die Abschaffung aller Exporterstattungen für Milch und Milchprodukte dazu, dass die EU Exporte sinken und damit wegen der EU als relative großes Land die Weltmarktpreise für Milch steigen werden. Drittens begünstigt die vorausgesagte Zunahme in der aggregierten Milchnachfrage in der EU eine Reduzierung aller Subventionen. Die GAP entwickelt sich im Milchsektor in die richtige Richtung. Es sollten aber alle Subventionen so schnell wie möglich abgebaut und die Milchquote sollte aufrechterhalten werden, um Preisverzerrungen zu reduzieren. [source]


    Administrative and Court Reform in Central and Eastern Europe

    EUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 3 2003
    Frank Emmert
    Only relatively recently, it was recognised that successful administrative and court reform would be just as necessary in order to achieve the desired goals, namely that the candidates would eventually be able to take on their obligations as new members of the Union. Unfortunately, it has now become evident that it is easier to write new laws than to get them properly applied in every day practice. This article describes a number of cases to illustrate the problem. It shows that administrators and judges in Central and Eastern Europe have significant difficulties with Western working methods, specifically the application of international norms in the national legal order, due process and procedural safeguards, treatment of precedents, resolution of ambiguities and lacunae in the law, etc., which may in turn result in unjust and sometimes absurd application of laws. These difficulties cannot be resolved merely by organising ever more training courses and other theoretical programmes. The author claims that the majority of efforts promoting administrative and court reform applied so far have rendered only meager results. Therefore, additional and more creative measures have to be designed and implemented and have to be continued for years beyond accession of most of these countries to the EU in 2004. Otherwise, rule of law deserving its name will not materialise in the new Member States. The author concludes by offering some ideas based on many years of experience in the region. [source]


    Deposit Insurance, Banking Reform, and Financial Sector Development in Several Nations of Southeastern Europe

    FINANCIAL MARKETS, INSTITUTIONS & INSTRUMENTS, Issue 1 2006
    By Neil B. Murphy
    Deposit insurance has spread to many sections of the world. In the newly formed nations of the former Yugoslavia, this has occurred under conditions of post-conflict reconstruction, hyperinflation, and several different governmental structures. Three cases are examined; Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia and Montenegro. They all have developed deposit insurance programs. The implementation process was compared to "best practice" recommendations. It is found that the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina was difficult due to the fractured nature of the Dayton Accord government structure on the one hand but easier to the strong international presence supporting required actions. In the case of Croatia, a unified state emerged from the war, but it was somewhat isolated. Its bank restructuring was costly, and a fragmented deposit insurance program was introduced in the middle of a banking crisis. In the case of Serbia and Montenegro, the bank restructuring process is still underway, and implementation of a functioning deposit insurance program properly awaits its completion. [source]


    Symposium on Welfare Reform under the Labour Government: Part I, Editorial Note

    FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2002
    Article first published online: 2 FEB 200
    This symposium arises from a one-day conference held at the Institute for Fiscal Studies on 22 May 2002. The papers presented on that day considered the social security reforms during the first term of the Labour government from a number of perspectives. The three articles published here , and the further three that will follow in Part II of the symposium , are drawn from a broader range of disciplines than is usual for Fiscal Studies papers. [source]


    Gender and Welfare Reform in Post- Revolutionary Mexico

    GENDER & HISTORY, Issue 1 2008
    Nichole Sanders
    This article discusses the impact a gender and woman's history conference had on the development of my own research and writing. ,Las Olvidadas' was a conference held at Yale in the Spring of 2001, and was the first in a series of Mexican women's and gender history conferences organised. My own research, on the gendered nature of the welfare state in Mexico, explores how class and race intersected with gender to produce a welfare system that, while particular to Mexico, also nevertheless had much in common with other Latin American countries. These conferences shaped both my views of gender, but also the importance of the transnational to historical research. [source]


    The Dynamics of Performance Management: Constructing Information and Reform , By Donald P. Moynihan

    GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2009
    MATT ANDREWSArticle first published online: 25 JUN 200
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]


    The Politics of Social Learning: Finance, Institutions, and Pension Reform in the United States and Canada

    GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2006
    DANIEL BÉLANDArticle first published online: 27 OCT 200
    Because the traditional concept of social learning has faced significant criticism in recent years, more analytical work is required to back the claim that the lessons drawn from existing institutional legacies can truly impact policy outcomes. Grounded in the historical institutionalist literature, this article formulates an amended concept of social learning through the analysis of the relationship between finance, social learning, and institutional legacies in the 1990s debate over the reform of earnings-related pension schemes in the United States and Canada. The article shows how social learning related to specific ideological assumptions and policy legacies in the public and the private sectors has affected policymaking processes. At the theoretical level, this contribution stresses the political construction of learning processes, which is distinct from the technocratic model featured in the traditional literature on social learning. This article also distinguishes between high- and low-profile social learning while emphasizing the impact of private policy legacies on learning processes. [source]


    Government Matters: Welfare Reform in Wisconsin , Lawrence Mead

    GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2006
    PAUL MANNA
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]


    Understanding NHS Reform: The Policy-Transfer, Social Learning, and Path-Dependency Perspectives

    GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2002
    Ian GreenerArticle first published online: 17 DEC 200
    This paper utilizes three perspectives in analyzing health policy in the U.K. during the formulation of the "internal market" reforms of the late 1980s and early 1990s: policy transfer, social learning, and path-dependency. By doing so, it attempts to incorporate the most significant insights from each perspective to construct a framework for analysis that better illuminates the actors, processes, and constraints involved in health policy reform, as well as providing a means of assessing its importance. I suggest that the reform process in the U.K. was considerably more complex than most existing accounts suggest, and that notions such as "conjuncture" require caution in their usage in order to avoid confusion between the contingent and relatively permanent factors that allow reform to occur. [source]


    Globalization, Governance, and the Political-Economy of Public Policy Reform in East Asia

    GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2001
    Mark Beeson
    In the wake of the crisis that developed in East Asia during 1997, perceptions of the region have been transformed. Critics claim that East Asian political practices and economic structures must be reformed if the region is to prosper in an era of globalization. In short, the region must adopt a different sort of public policy, one associated with an influential agenda of "good governance." This paper critically assesses this discourse and the predominately "Western" assumptions that underpin it. It is argued that, not only is this reformist agenda likely to be resisted by powerful vested interests, but the institutional infrastructure to support such a style of governance is inadequately developed in East Asia. [source]


    Citizens, Charters and Public Service Reform in France and Britain

    GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION, Issue 2 2000
    David Clark
    [source]


    The Impact of Welfare Reform on Insurance Coverage before Pregnancy and the Timing of Prenatal Care Initiation

    HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 4 2007
    Norma I. Gavin
    Objective. This study investigates the impact of welfare reform on insurance coverage before pregnancy and on first-trimester initiation of prenatal care (PNC) among pregnant women eligible for Medicaid under welfare-related eligibility criteria. Data Sources. We used pooled data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System for eight states (AL, FL, ME, NY, OK, SC, WA, and WV) from 1996 through 1999. Study Design. We estimated a two-part logistic model of insurance coverage before pregnancy and first-trimester PNC initiation. The impact of welfare reform on insurance coverage before pregnancy was measured by marginal effects computed from coefficients of an interaction term for the postreform period and welfare-related eligibility and on PNC initiation by the same interaction term and the coefficients of insurance coverage adjusted for potential simultaneous equation bias. We compared the estimates from this model with results from simple logistic, ordinary least squares, and two-stage least squares models. Principal Findings. Welfare reform had a significant negative impact on Medicaid coverage before pregnancy among welfare-related Medicaid eligibles. This drop resulted in a small decline in their first-trimester PNC initiation. Enrollment in Medicaid before pregnancy was independent of the decision to initiate PNC, and estimates of the effect of a reduction in Medicaid coverage before pregnancy on PNC initiation were consistent over the single- and two-stage models. Effects of private coverage were mixed. Welfare reform had no impact on first-trimester PNC beyond that from reduced Medicaid coverage in the pooled regression but separate state-specific regressions suggest additional effects from time and income constraints induced by welfare reform may have occurred in some states. Conclusions. Welfare reform had significant adverse effects on insurance coverage and first-trimester PNC initiation among our nation's poorest women of childbearing age. Improved outreach and insurance options for these women are needed to meet national health goals. [source]


    The Unintended Impact of Welfare Reform on the Medicaid Enrollment of Eligible Immigrants

    HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 5 2004
    Namratha R. Kandula
    Background. During welfare reform, Congress passed legislation barring legal immigrants who entered the United States after August 1996 from Medicaid for five years after immigration. This legislation intended to bar only new immigrants (post-1996 immigrants) from Medicaid. However it may have also deterred the enrollment of legal immigrants who immigrated before 1996 (pre-1996 immigrants) and who should have remained Medicaid eligible. Objectives. To compare the Medicaid enrollment of U.S.-born citizens to pre-1996 immigrants, before and after welfare reform, and to determine if variation in state Medicaid policies toward post-1996 immigrants modified the effects of welfare reform on pre-1996 immigrants. Data Source/Study Design. Secondary database analysis of cross-sectional data from 1994,2001 of the U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Demographic Survey of March Supplement of the Current Population Survey. Subjects. Low-income, U.S.-born adults (N=116,307) and low-income pre-1996 immigrants (N=24,367) before and after welfare reform. Measures. Self-reported Medicaid enrollment. Results. Before welfare reform, pre-1996 immigrants were less likely to enroll in Medicaid than the U.S.-born (OR=0.55; 95 percent CI, 0.51,0.59). After welfare reform, pre-1996 immigrants were even less likely to enroll in Medicaid. The proportion of immigrants in Medicaid dropped 3 percentage points after 1996; for the U.S.-born it dropped 1.6 percentage points (p=0.012). Except for California, state variation in Medicaid policy toward post-1996 immigrants did modify the effect of welfare reform on pre-1996 immigrants. Conclusions. Federal laws limiting the Medicaid eligibility of specific subgroups of immigrants appear to have had unintended consequences on Medicaid enrollment in the larger, still eligible immigrant community. Inclusive state policies may overcome this effect. [source]


    Federalism and the Failure of Imperial Reform, 1774,1775

    HISTORY, Issue 282 2001
    Neil York
    The dispute that pitted British imperialists against American colonists was only superficially constitutional. Belief in indivisible sovereignty and the supremacy of crown and parliament, which prevailed at Whitehall and Westminster, became irreconcilable with American aspirations as a result of actual circumstance not theoretical incompatibility. This was clearly demonstrated by the failure of various proposals made in 1774 and 1775 to reform the empire. These proposals sought to improve relations through a better sharing of power that would in some sense federalize the empire. Whether the reformers called for Americans to be seated in parliament or to be allowed an intercolonial congress of their own, the great stumbling block was political not constitutional. Whatever the merits of their plans, the reformers could not satisfy either side, even though both professed to want compromise that would prevent confrontation. In the process a sense of common identity was lost that could not be recovered, at least in the manner suggested by the reformers. Only with the breakdown of the idealized Atlantic community did constitutional differences lead to an impasse. [source]


    Radical Opinion in an Age of Reform: Thomas Perronet Thompson and the Westminster Review

    HISTORY, Issue 281 2001
    Michael J. Turner
    Historians have long been interested in the growth of the nineteenth-century political press, and many commentators recognize the instrumentality of newspapers, pamphlets, prints and publications of all kinds in the development of radical opinion and popular participation in politics. This article is offered as a contribution to continuing debates about the links between radicalism and the press. Its purpose is to examine the establishment and early history of the Westminster Review, the leading radical periodical of the early nineteenth century. Special attention will be paid to the role of Thomas Perronet Thompson (1783-1869), who was associated with the review for several years as owner, editor and contributor. This article will demonstrate the importance of Thompson's involvement with the Westminster Review with reference to its politics, reputation, influence, management and status. Personal relationships which had a bearing on the review's early history - particularly those between Thompson, Jeremy Bentham, John Bowring and the Mills - will be examined, and there will also be discussion of editorial processes, journalistic standards, business rivalry, the nature of the Westminster Review's content, and its conflict with the Whig Edinburgh Review. [source]


    The Social Function of the Law Faculty: Demographics, Republican Reform, and Professional Training at the Paris Law Faculty, 1870,1914

    HISTORY OF EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2008
    John Savage
    First page of article [source]


    A Blueprint for IMF Reform: More than just a Lender,

    INTERNATIONAL FINANCE, Issue 2 2007
    Barry EichengreenArticle first published online: 14 AUG 200
    First page of article [source]


    Social Changes and Welfare Reform in South Korea: In the Context of the Late-coming Welfare State

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF JAPANESE SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
    Sung-won Kim
    Abstract The Korean welfare state is facing diverse pressures and challenges due to changing economic, social, and demographic circumstances: prevalence of the service economy, labor market flexibility, weakened family function and increase of untraditional families, lowest fertility rate and the most rapid ageing of the population among OECD countries, and so forth. These challenges, which indicate new types of social risks, have been stimulating a series of discussions on welfare reform in Korea. The old social risks such as retirement, ill health, poverty, and unemployment have not disappeared because of insecure or inadequate welfare, and now these risks are even intertwined with the so-called new social risks. Thereby the Korean welfare state is facing complicated reform tasks. This study attempts to analyze the structure and context of these challenges in Korea, and to explore the various driving forces that have formulated Korean welfare reform in recent decades. Through the above analyses, this study will shed light the characteristics of welfare reform in Korea as a late-coming welfare state. [source]


    Immigration Policy and Employment Conditions of US Immigrants from Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic1

    INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 5 2005
    Katharine M. Donato
    ABSTRACT Prior studies suggest that the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986 signalled a deterioration in the labour market conditions of Mexican migrants. In this paper, we examine whether and how labour market conditions worsened for Dominicans and Nicaraguans after 1986, and the extent to which these shifts were comparable to those experienced by Mexicans. Our analysis relies on a new source of data that offers comparable data across the three national origins. We estimate multivariate models that capture the effects of demographic attributes, human and social capital, migration-specific human and social capital, legal status, period of trip, national origin, and other controls on the hourly wages earned by household heads and whether they received cash wages on their last US trip. Models with interaction terms reveal significant pre- and post-1986 wage effects, but few differences in these effects between Mexicans and Dominicans or Nicaraguans. In contrast, group differences appear in the risk of cash receipt of wages. Dominicans and Nicaraguans experienced a greater increase in this risk relative to Mexicans pre- and post-1986. Together, these findings depict a broader, negative impact of IRCA on Latino migrant wages than has been documented elsewhere. [source]


    The Political Economy of Pension Reform in Eastern Europe

    INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 2-3 2001
    Katharina Müller
    The retirement schemes in several East European countries underwent fundamental change in recent years, defying conventional wisdom in welfare state research. This article takes a new look at the determinants of paradigm choice in the area of old-age security, comparing the Polish, Hungarian and Czech experience from an actor-centred institutionalist perspective. The author points out that structural factors , notably the financial situation of retirement schemes and the level of external debt , largely determined the set of main pension reform actors, as well as their relative strength. The resulting actor constellations produced the basic paradigm choice, based on the actors' respective cognitive maps and consequent perception of pension reform alternatives. Tactical moves and the strategic potentialities of the chosen paradigm were also relevant. [source]